4 2 THE JOURNAL OF PHARMACOLOGY. 



chides that the tincture and fluid extract are greatly to be preferred in the 

 presence of a failing heart and circulation, the infusion acting better as a 

 diuretic in those cases where a direct renal stimulant is desired. It is, how- 

 ever, much more apt to disturb the stomach, owing to the irritating digi- 

 tonin which it contains. He advises against the use, ordinarily, of digitaliu 

 owing to its irregular nature, as occurring in commerce. R. 



Comparative Structure of the Leaves of Datura Stramonium, 

 Atropa Belladonna and Hyoscyamus Niger.— J. 0. Schlotterbece and 

 A. Van Zwaltjwenbukg. (Pharmaceutical Archives, Vol., I., 1898, pp. 

 1-6.) 



The authors give a careful study of the anatomical details of these three 

 leaves, with the object in view of determining them in the powdered con- 

 dition. The following resume of characters is given: 



i). stramonium: 



Leaf: — Smooth, sinuate, unequal at the base, with round perforations and 

 prominent mid-rib underneath. 



Powder: — Elongated palisade cells; stellate crystals predominating, oc- 

 casionally cubes; thick-walled, warty hair. 



A. BELLADONNA. 



Leaf: — Broadly ovate narrowed into a petrole; entire margin, smooth. 

 Powder: — Crystal cells, large, round and full of crystal sand, or acicular 

 crystals. 



HYOSCYAMUS NIGER. 



Leaf: — Hirsute, deeply sinuous, clasping at the base. 



Powder: — Crystals prismatic, or in twin forms; seldom, if ever, stellate. 



Poisoning by Sorghum. — In The Agricultural Ledger, for 1896, 

 Number 24, Veterinary Captain Pease discusses the well-established fact 

 that Andropogon Sorghum, which is ordinarily a perfectly harmless fodder 

 plant, may hecome highly poisonous when the plant grows in a stunted or 

 dried-up form, owing to the failure of the regular rains. Eeference is made 

 to the great number of fatal poisoning accidents which occur to Indian 

 cattle due to this cause, and to the public impression that they result from 

 the occurrence in the plant at such a time of a boring insect, similar to that 

 which infests the sugar cane under similar conditions. Eeference is also 

 made to the fact that the poisonous properties develop simultaneously over a 

 large tract of country, appearing and disappearing within certain fixed 

 limits of time. But the opinion of Veterinary-Surgeon Anderson is quoted 

 to the effect that the poisoning is merely the result of ordinary tympanitis, 

 due to the indigestibility of the fodder. Captain Pease sets all of these 

 theories aside, and records his discovery of large quantities of nitrate of. 



